Inflammatory responses include a broad range of host reaction to a variety of insults, such as injury, infection, or rejection. It is the overproduction of mediators that is believed to be associated with a broad range of disorders, including AIDS, arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, spondyloarthropathies), antibiotic-induced diarrheal diseases, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, gingivitis, peptic ulcer disease, esophagitis, diabetes, retinitis, uveitis, reperfusion injury after myocardial infarction, cerebral vascular accident, aphthous ulcers (oral), atherosclerosis, tumor metastases, asthma, preeclampsia, pancreatitis, psoriasis, infertility and allergic disorders such as rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and urticaria.
Some of these disorders and their symptoms are briefly summarized below. According to the methods of the present invention, IL-11 is administered topically to modulate the host's over reaction at the site of insult, thereby treating the following disorders.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Inflammatory bowel disease is the term generally applied to four diseases of the bowel, namely Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, indeterminate colitis, and infectious colitis.
Ulcerative Colitis: Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology afflicting the large intestine. The course of the disease may be continuous or relapsing, mild or severe. The earliest lesion is an inflammatory infiltration with abscess formation at the base of the crypts of Lieberkühn. Coalescence of these distended and ruptured crypts tends to separate the overlying mucosa from its blood supply, leading to ulceration. Signs and symptoms of the disease include cramping, lower abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, and frequent, loose discharges consisting mainly of blood, pus, and mucus with scanty fecal particles. A total colectomy may be required for acute severe or chronic, unremitting ulcerative colitis.
Crohn's Disease: Crohn's disease (also known as regional enteritis or ulcerative ileitis) is also a chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology but, unlike ulcerative colitis, it can affect any part of the bowel. The most prominent feature of the disease is the granular, reddish-purple edematous thickening of the bowel wall. With the development of inflammation, these granulomas often lose their circumscribed borders and integrate with the surrounding tissue. Diarrhea and obstruction of the bowel are the predominant clinical features. As with ulcerative colitis, the course of the disease may be continuous or relapsing, mild or severe but, unlike ulcerative colitis, it is not curable by resection of the involved segment of bowel. Most patients with Crohn's disease require surgery at some point, but subsequent relapse is common and continuous medical treatment is usual.
Mucositis: Mucositis involves ulcerative breakdown of mucosal epithelial tissue, and is literally defined as inflammation of the mucous membrane. The pathophysiology of mucositis in response to toxic insults to the mucosa by chemotherapy or by ionizing radiation is complex and involves a cascade of interactions among cells, cytokines and the oral microflora. The underlying premise for susceptibility of the mucosa of the oropharynx and gastrointestinal tract to chemotherapy or radiation damage is related to rapid epithelial stem cell turnover. Mucositis may be characterized by the following phases:                1. Early inflammatory phase characterized by release of inflammatory cytokines in response to local tissue damage caused by cytotoxic agent(s);        2. Epithelial phase characterized by death of basal cells, which hinders re-population of the epithelium. This inability to regenerate leads to atrophy followed by ulceration. The ulceration represents loss of an important anatomic barrier at a site of local microflora;        3. Infection phase characterized by local invasion of microflora that results in an inflammatory response to the local infection. The inflammation results in additional local tissue damage and possibly erosive ulceration; and        4. Healing phase characterized by resolution of the infection and regeneration of epithelium.        
Oral mucositis produces the following clinical symptoms and signs resulting from cellular damage: 1) sensation of dryness; 2) asymptomatic redness and erythema; 3) solitary white elevated desquamative patches which are painful upon pressure contact; and 4) large, painful, contiguous pseudomembranous lesions associated with dysphagia and decreased oral intake. These spontaneously painful lesions histopathologically show loss of epithelial cells to the basement membrane, which exposes the connective tissue stroma with its associated innervation.
As with oral mucosa, gastrointestinal mucosal damage results from disturbance of cellular mitosis that leads to reduction in the turnover rate of the basal cells of the intestinal crypts. The symptoms and signs of gastrointestinal mucositis include tenesmus (painful ineffectual straining at stool), pain, bleeding, diarrhea, telangectasia (neovascularization), and progression to ulceration. Early signs of diarrhea include increased stool frequency, loose or watery stool, food aversion, increased bowel sounds, abdominal pain, and some loss of skin turgor indicative of dehydration. When the diarrhea is severe it may be associated with mucosal ulceration, bleeding, intestinal perforation and proctitis. Stool exam may reveal occult blood and fecal leukocytes.
Necrotizing Enterocolitis: Necrotizing enterocolits is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that afflicts between 1-5% of all infants admitted to neonatal intensive care units, most of whom are premature infants. Signs and symptoms include abdominal distention, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and feeding intolerance. The disease most often involves the ileum and colon, and is characterized by loss of epithelium and submucosal edema, ulcerations, and, in severe cases, transmural necrosis.
Psoriasis: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder involving hyperproliferation of the epidermis and inflammation of both the epidermis and the dermis. Macrophage, T-cells and neutrophil infiltration of the dermis and epidermis is seen, and proinflammatory mediators are released from these activated cells.
Aphthous Ulcers (oral): Although the cause of aphthous ulcers remain unknown, many physicians believe they are caused by autoimmune phenomena, which cause the destruction of discrete areas of the oral mucosa which leads to oral ulceration. Among the cytokines present in these active areas of ulceration, TNF-α appears to play a predominant role.
Gingivitis: Adult periodontitis is strongly associated with infection by Porphyromonas gingivalis. Proteolytic enzymes, which are produced in large quantity by this bacteria, are considered as important pathogenic agents. The increased production and flow of gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) is an important change in gingival tissues during periodontal infection, correlating with clinical indices of gingival inflammation. Indeed, salivary protein and albumin concentrations of individuals with periodontitis, which are an indication of plasma leakage due to vascular permeability enhancement (VPE), are significantly increased compared to healthy subjects. The production of GCF appears dependent on VPE induced at periodontitis sites, presumably involving proteinase(s) of P. gingivalis in their generation.
Esophagitis: The most common cause of esophagitis is the chronic reflux of hydrochloric acid from the stomach due to inefficiency of the cardiac sphincter of the stomach. The chronic presence of acid in the lower esophagus leads to damage of the esophageal mucosa. In the most severe form, a syndrome called Barrett's esophagus can develop which often leads to esophageal cancer. Other causes of esophagitis include parenteral chemotherapy and ionizing radiation, associated with radiation therapy for cancer in the thoracic cavity.
Retinitis: Inflammation of the light sensitive retina, retinitis, can occur due to a variety of viral, bacterial or autoimmune etiologies. The end result is destruction of the retina and loss of sight.
Uveitis: Inflammation of the anterior portion of the eye its associated structures, the iris and cornea occurs with a relatively high frequency in patients with autoimmune disorders.
Peptic Ulcer Disease: Inhibition of gastric acid secretion with H2-receptor antagonists and, more recently, blockers of H+,K+-ATPase (also known as the proton pump) has been the mainstay of therapy for peptic ulcer disease. The pathophysiology of peptic ulcers remains obscure. An appreciation of the complexity of the physiology of the gastric mucosa has led to a hypothesis that peptic ulcers are the result of an imbalance in the relative importance of aggressive (acid, pepsin) and protective (mucus, bicarbonate, blood flow, prostaglandins, etc.) factors. Infection of the mucosa of the human gastric antrum with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori has been widely accepted as the cause of chronic, active, type B gastritis. Further, this form of gastritis has been linked directly to peptic ulcer disease by studies showing that eradication of H. pylori reverses this gastritis and prevents duodenal ulcer relapse. Because cytokines are the principal mediators by which immune/inflammatory cells communicate with each other and with other cells, it is likely that these small peptides are involved in the pathogenesis of chronic active type B gastritis and the resulting peptic ulcer disease.
Some cytokines (IL-1, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor-α, acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors) tip the balance towards peptic ulcer healing; others (tumor necrosis factor-α) appear to have no effect; still others (IL4) may even cause gastrointestinal damage.
The infiltration and activation of multiple types of inflammatory cells result in a series of degenerative changes in the vasculature of the affected area, as well as inciting damage of the surrounding parenchymal tissue.